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3. “Honour Killings”: their Prevalence and Understanding the Rationale ‘Honour’ crimes is a term used widely to refer to the killing or harm induced on persons, usually women, for the protection of the perpetrator’s ‘honour’. A simplistic definition of ‘honour’ killings is given by Rabia Ali in a report for Shirkit Gah 11 : ' ‘[W]hen a man takes the life of a woman and claims that he did it because she was guilty of immoral sexual conduct it is called an honour killing, not murder’ 12 . Another definition states: ‘Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family’. 13 The term ‘honour’ crimes is a wide term which includes different manifestations of violence, such as ‘honour’ killings, assault, confinement or imprisonment, and interference with choice in marriage, where the publicly articulated ‘justification’ is attributed to a social order claimed to require the preservation of a concept of ‘honour’ vested in male (family and/or conjugal) control over women and specifically women’s sexual conduct, actual, suspected or potential’ 14 . The extra-judicial means employed in this ‘control’ of women are exercised usually through customary practices, forming a part of what has been termed “traditional 11 A prominent human rights organization in Pakistan 12 The Dark Side of ‘Honour’, Rabia Ali, Shirkat Gah 13 ‘Honor Killing in Pakistan’, filed on 11-06-2009, http://actdcmetro.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/honor-killing-in-pakistan/ 14 P.4, ‘Honour’ Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women, Edited by Lynn Welchman, Sara Hossain, Oxford University Press, 2005 17
justice” or “tribal justice”, a contested form of private retribution that many find unwarranted and illegitimate 15 . While the concept of honour killings goes back to pre-Islamic Arabia, it has also been traced to ancient Roman times, when the paterfamilias retained the right to kill an unmarried but sexually active daughter or an adulterous wife. It is not known when, or indeed if, the practice ended in Europe 16 . In Pakistan, the concept traces back to Pakhtun and Baloch tribal customs. It has however since become prevalent in both Sindh and in Punjab, resulting in murders being committed across the country without any regional or class boundaries. Honour killings have transcended into modern times and are rampant across the world. Pakistan is no exception to these killings. They are high in number, often non-reported therefore the statistics collected even now are incomplete and can only give a slight over-view of what the actual situation may be. In fact, honour killings, even from the incomplete number of cases reported, is one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women in Pakistan. Understanding the Rationale Behind ‘Honour Killings’ Understanding the concept of ‘honour killings’, as mentioned earlier, is extremely important to be able to have a holistic understanding of the crime. It is firmly based in a patriarchal system, obsessed with the idea of 15 Nancy V. Baker, Peter A. Gregware and Margery A. Cassidy. "Family Killing Fields: Honor 16 Rationales in the Murder of Women." Violence Against Women 5, No. 2 (1991): 164–84. 18
Page 2 and 3: A Pilot Study on: ‘Honour Killing
Page 4: Table of Contents Preface 1 Introdu
Page 8 and 9: Preface Elimination of all negative
Page 10 and 11: the nature and extent of its compli
Page 12 and 13: Introduction The Criminal Law (Amen
Page 14: formalised by the State and ‘lega
Page 17 and 18: Gender is one of the organisational
Page 19 and 20: their rights were achieved on paper
Page 21 and 22: elatives), in effect excluding all
Page 26 and 27: patrilineage 17 . From this follows
Page 28 and 29: compensation negotiated to end a di
Page 30: divorced or excommunicated, an act
Page 33 and 34: Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal
Page 35 and 36: monitor women’s movements and kil
Page 37 and 38: mitigation, compensation for the he
Page 39 and 40: The discretion of the court to deci
Page 41 and 42: down for such cases. This applies t
Page 43 and 44: to properly determine the issue bef
Page 45 and 46: Table 1: Number & Percentages of Ca
Page 47 and 48: the police stations are not even eq
Page 49 and 50: Findings of the Research The findin
Page 51 and 52: When asked about the lack of filing
Page 53 and 54: Gujrat Gujrat also shows a similar
Page 55 and 56: community. Perhaps this has been on
Page 57 and 58: eporting it will do when registerin
Page 59 and 60: Jillani reiterated Justice Abbasi
Page 61 and 62: death and it was subsequently disco
Page 63 and 64: Lahore High Court The Lahore High C
Page 65 and 66: meditation falling under the defini
Page 67 and 68: for conservative and biased interpr
Page 70 and 71: 6. Perspective of the Community Whi
Page 72 and 73: mindset and existing confining soci
Page 74 and 75:
even if cases are brought to them,
Page 76 and 77:
Role of the Community It is general
Page 78 and 79:
court settlement is preferred. Such
Page 80 and 81:
7. Conclusion and Main Findings It
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6. There are also problems with the
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12. These precedents are not necess
Page 86 and 87:
hold through these illegal forms of
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24. The police can play a very nega
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The police system is in dire need o
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